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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9798279" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 8: BURNING DOWN THE HOUSEPC Roster:Adrielle, human/merfolk scout 2                     Brendan Conaill, human monk 2                     Kruz Taszan, changeling rogue 2                     Shiroko, snow fox hengeyokai wu jen 2NPC Roster:Hoppy, mongrelfolk adept 2Game Session Date: 25 October 2025 - - -It was the end of a long day.  Kruz suggested the group swing by the Alehouse, a local watering hole run by a man named Grigor Barrelhauser.  "They have a pretty limited selection," the changeling rogue admitted, "but the stuff he serves is decent for the price."  Brendan confirmed what Kruz had said, and the others agreed to give it a shot.On their way in, a trio of grumpy-looking dwarves in leather kilts exited through the double doors, angrily pushing the group aside.  Brendan opened his mouth to tell them off, when another voice called from inside the tavern, "Kruz!  Brendan!  Who're your friends?  C'mon in here and have a pint!"Brendan recognized the voice at once as that of "Lucky" Eddie, a local informant who often sold information to the Silent Sodality members.  His clothes were threadbare and his hair and beard likely hadn't seen a comb in months, but he was a friendly sort.  "I don't have anything to sell you right now, although I got a couple leads that just might pan out," he told the group.  "But I just finished my first ale and was thinking about another - you guys up for a game of darts?  Loser buys the next pitcher.""Sure," agreed Brendan.  "I'll be more than happy to drink your ale.""I'm in," added Kruz.  Shiroko and Adrielle waved the group off, although they had a seat on the benches at the table where "Lucky" Eddie had been sitting.  Hoppy likewise turned down the offer, not wanting to draw attention to himself; he was half surprised not to be run out of the place, so he quietly took a chair from an unoccupied table and drew it up to the table's end, where he could sit with his back to the bar and hopefully blend in with the crowd.  A barmaid wandered over and the ladies each ordered a glass of tea, while Hoppy mumbled that he was fine."Watch an expert at work," Brendan offered, up, taking a set of three darts and throwing them, one at a time, at the dartboard hanging from the wall beside the table at which they sat.  "Not bad," commented Kruz - who then proceeded to obliterate the monk's score with a dazzling display of hand-eye coordination."Hrrrm," groaned "Lucky" Eddie, realizing there was no way he was going to beat the rogue's score.  But then his face broke out into a smile.  "Well, I don't gotta beat him, I just gotta beat you," he said, grinning at Brendan."In your dreams," the monk scoffed.  But his confidence was misplaced, because the informant managed to beat him after all, and Brendan found himself paying for a pitcher of ale with a couple of silver coins from his pocket."Much obliged," "Lucky" Eddie said when the serving girl brought over the pitcher.  He filled his glass up first before passing it on to the others.  "You ever notice how much better ale tastes when it's free?" he asked the table at large, winking over at Brendan.  The monk hid the scowl threatening to cross his face.  But when the first pitcher had been drained, he offered another go at the dartboard for the next one.  Kruz and "Lucky" Eddie were both up for it, and Shiroko hesitantly asked if she could join in this time.  "I would be interested in tasting the ale here," she said.  "We mostly drank rice wine back in my homeland.""Sure, the more the merrier!" "Lucky" Eddie replied, thinking the more people who played, the better the chances were that someone else would be the loser.  "You in?" he asked Adrielle and Hoppy, but they both demurred.They let Shiroko have the first turn, and she did all right, but Brendan managed to just barely beat her when he was up.  Kruz went next, and as usual the dexterous rogue blew both of their scores out of the water.  Looking over the tallies thus far, "Lucky" Eddie tried one last time to get Adrielle and Hoppy - or even just one of them - to join in.  "No?  Okay, then, I'm up.  I can do this.  I can do this."But it turned out he couldn't, achieving the lowest score of the four.  With poor grace, he pulled out a few coins of his own and signaled the serving girl, Greta, to bring over another pitcher.It was some time later, after that second pitcher was nearly emptied, that "Lucky" Eddie decided he could definitely top his previous score and beat at least one of the other competitors at a third match.  He was just about to suggest that very thing when chaos suddenly erupted inside the Alehouse.A bit of motion caught Hoppy's peripheral vision and he looked over to see a black cat come sliding into the tavern from the direction of the double doors at the front of the Alehouse.  But then he noticed the distinctive white stripe down its back..."Skunk!" cried the mongrelfolk.The warning came too late, for the skunk, angered at having been tossed into a crowd of people and frightened by all the commotion, lifted its tail and let loose with a spray of foul-smelling musk.  It targeted the person nearest to it - poor Greta, standing at the bar, fetching a tray of drinks from Grigor for a table along the side wall, and who had turned at the commotion just in time to get a face full of foul-smelling spray.  She dropped the tray and the mugs of heavy mead shattered, making even more of a mess.Kruz hadn't seen the skunk get tossed into the bar; to him, it just suddenly appeared there.  He activated the birthmark on his upper chest, transforming it into a silver necklace holding a gem of true seeing at the end of it and holding it up to his eye.  Despite his concerns, the skunk was apparently just a real skunk, not an illusion.  It scampered under the nearest table in an effort to hide from the crowd.Shiroko activated her innate prestidigitation spell and used it to tamp down on the nasty odor emanating from Greta.  It was too late to prevent her from being sick - nor, too, did the wu jen act in time to prevent Grigor from bending over behind the bar and losing his last meal - but she hoped the lessened effect would prevent others from being similarly sickened.  Greta ran off towards the kitchen, to try to wash the rest of the scent from her face and clothing.  But Shiroko wasn't done yet; in the language of burrowing mammals, she called out to the skunk, "Why are you here, little one?"  (To the others in the tavern, it sounded like she was simply making yips, yaps, and grunts - odd behavior for a well-dressed lady in an immaculate kimono.)"Do not want!" replied the skunk, avoiding an attempt by Kruz to pick it up and scampering off to a hiding space beneath a table in the far corner, as far away as everyone as it could get.  Shiroko decided it meant it did not in fact wish to be there in the Alehouse, but she also knew it wouldn't be able to spray anyone else for a while, so she let it be.Brendan had been facing the double doors and saw one of them open right before the skunk was tossed in and then slammed back shut.  He got off the bench upon which he'd been seated, ran over to the front doors, and tried to push them open, but he met an unexpected resistance.  Putting his strength into opening the door to his left, he managed to force the doorknob to move and got the door pushed open all of an inch or so before it was slammed back in his face.  Someone, it seemed, was outside holding the doors closed, to prevent anyone from exiting the Alehouse while the frightened skunk ran rampant.Adrielle went over to see if Grigor was all right, and by then he had straightened back up and was wiping his mouth on his apron.  Hoppy got out of his chair and moved over behind "Lucky" Eddie, who hadn't moved from where he'd been sitting, apparently having decided to just let this all play out around him.  Hoppy opted to stay back with him, out of the way, and let his friends the adventurers deal with the situation.  But as always, he'd keep an eye on them and leap in with healing spells should they become necessary.  The other bar patrons had made their way as far away from the skunk as possible, not wishing to suffer Greta's fate.Shiroko followed after the skunk, keeping her distance but bending down so she could see it underneath the corner table, shivering with fear.  She cast a detect magic spell and noted it had no magical auras about it; this was no summoned creature but some poor, hapless skunk who'd been captured and tossed in here as a prank.  "Stay where it's safe," she told the skunk in its own language.  "We will come get you when we can get you back outside, where you belong."  Then she moved over by Brendan, who explained about the person on the other side holding the doors shut.  They heard a sudden pounding, and the wu jen peeked through one of the small windows built into the walls on either side of the doors.  Through it, she could see a pair of dwarves by the doors, one holding the knobs while the other used a hammer to drive wooden wedges under the doors to better hold them in place.  Standing further back was an elf woman, with a dog standing at her side.Brendan tried twisting the doorknob open again, but the dwarf on the other side had a better grip on it this time and the monk couldn't even get it to budge.  "I'll try the side door!" called Adrielle, running through the door to the kitchen after Grigor had told her about the only other way out.  Greta was there, as well as an older woman, Mrs. Muggins, who cooked the meager selections of food the Alehouse served.  She was washing the bar maid's face with a wet towel, but Adrielle could still smell the stench of the skunk spray emanating from her - diminished, thanks to Shiroko's prestidigitation spell, but still quite noticeable.  However, she also met resistance when she tried twisting open the doorknob, and a harsh laugh from the other side of the door told her there was someone out there preventing anyone from exiting from that way as well."Do it!" called a guttural voice from behind the front doors.  "Cast th' spell!""I can't!" complained a female voice.  "I have to be able to not only see into the building, but there can't be anything in the way between me and where it takes effect!  You'd have to open the doors first!""Oh, fer--!" sputtered the dwarf, and what followed was apparently a quite colorful string of curses, fortunately in the Dwarven tongue, which neither Brendan nor Shiroko understood.  (They pretty much got the gist of it, however.)Kruz moved over to the back door through the kitchen and tried helping Adrielle to open the side door.  But try as they might, they couldn't get the doorknob to turn.  The laughter coming from the other side of the door told them the third dwarf holding it closed was enjoying their failure, though.  Brendan wasn't having any better luck getting the front doors open, either, but Shiroko readied a spell for when he eventually could pry at least one of them open."Wait a minute -- send 'em in under the doors!" bellowed the lead dwarf, and just like that, a massive wave of centipedes came crawling in under the space beneath the front doors, instantly overwhelming Shiroko and Brendan, the wu jen too flustered to even fire off the spell she'd had readied.  The multilegged creatures swarmed over the two, climbing up their bodies and biting them with their venomous mouthparts, while others of them advanced into the Alehouse and formed a massive island of writhing bodies all around the front doors.Hoppy saw the two heroes getting bitten dozens, if not scores of times, and ran over to Brendan, the closest of the two to him.  He cast a cure light wounds spell upon the monk, closing up at least some of the wicked bite-marks he'd taken by the swarming pests.  Shiroko screamed in disgust and stepped away from the area, brushing individual centipedes from her kimono as she went.  She was a bit surprised to see none of them followed her, but rather stayed in the spaces they were occupying; the wu jen reasoned these were summoned creatures, but had received no specific orders to chase down and attack anyone inside the Alehouse.  That seemed a rather odd oversight on the part of the spellcaster, but she wasn't going to complain about it!  In any case, she made her way around the centipede swarms and over to Hoppy, using the quick series of little steps required by the tightness of her kimono, so the adept could apply some healing to her as well."Ye change yer mind yet in there, Grigor?" called the dwarf leader from outside the front doors."Screw you!" replied the tavern's owner.  "I ain't paying you squat!"Brendan brushed centipedes from his own clothes as he backed hurriedly away from the swarms, also noticing their reticence to follow him and carry on the attack.  But over at the back door, Adrielle had motioned for Kruz to take over the "try to twist the doorknob open" game from her, while she slid her short sword from its scabbard, got down on her hands and knees, and suddenly stabbed the blade underneath the door, sliding it back and forth until she met resistance (accompanied by a howl of pain - apparently she'd cut at least one of the dwarf's feet).After having received a cure light wounds spell from Hoppy, Shiroko crawled up onto the table at which her group had been drinking and approached the window.  It was far too small for her to fit through, but she smashed it nonetheless with the hilt of her dagger.  Then, knocking aside the jagged edges of glass still sticking to the frame, she stuck her head through the window and saw the elf woman, the dog, and the dwarf leader - he was one of the trio wearing leather kilts who'd angrily brushed past the group when they'd first entered the Alehouse.  Now enjoying the line of effect the elf had warned her leader about, Shiroko cast a hail of stones spell on the dwarf and the elf, causing them both to cry out in pain and shield their heads with their hands in a fruitless effort to ward off the small rocks falling on them from the sky.Kruz had heard Shiroko break the window and went over there, placing a bolt into his light crossbow as he crossed the room.  He got up on the table and fired a shot at the elf (at Shiroko's recommendation - "Target the spellcaster first!").  His shot hit true, causing the elf to drop to a knee; the dog barked ferociously at her side, as she pulled the missile from her stomach and cast a healing spell of her own over the wound."Ye got a way inside with yer spells now!" growled the dwarf leader, pointing at the window now missing pretty much all of its glass.  "Do th' fire thing!"  The elf woman struggled to her feet and approached the window cautiously - for she could see Kruz reloading his crossbow within.  "Do th' fire thing, or yer kid gets it!"  The woman ran laterally, her dog at her heels, until she could see a bare area of floor inside the tavern.  Then she cast her spell, and a thoqqua appeared on the Alehouse floor, about halfway between the bar and the table at which "Lucky" Eddie still sat, drinking the remains of his glass of ale.  The thoqqua was a creature from the elemental planes, a massive earthworm as long as a man was tall, build of hardened, earthlike plates and wreathed in flames.  The spot upon which it initially manifested erupted in flames, and a trail of fire followed the worm as it slowly meandered around the barroom, in no particular hurry.Kruz had heard the threats and realized the elven woman fighting against them was not doing so under her own will.  So he switched targets, firing his next shot at the dwarven leader.  Shiroko called out in a loud whisper to the elf, telling her "We'll help save your child!" in a voice she hoped was loud enough for the elf to hear but quiet enough to escape the notice of the gruff dwarf.Brendan by this time had joined Adrielle and the two were trying to open the side door.  The knob was no longer being held, the dwarf who'd been doing so having backed off after being stabbed in the foot, but the wedge he's hammered in place was doing its job and then some.  In desperation, the monk grabbed up a small log from beside Mrs. Muggins' cookpot and tried using it as an impromptu battering ram.  It was a slow process.The dwarven leader, Braelor Cragbeard, didn't want to get hit with another crossbow bolt, so he ran up the outer wall of the building and sidled his way over by the window.  Shiroko saw a dwarf backing off from the front doors and targeted him with a sleep spell, dropping him instantly.  But then Braelor was there, swinging a club at the wu jen and clonking her solidly on the head.  She collapsed on the table, and would have knocked over the last pitcher had "Lucky" Eddie not made a sudden dive for it.  Then he decided he had certainly earned whatever ale was left in it and topped off his glass, while Hoppy hobbled over to cast another cure light wounds spell - this time from his wand, as he'd run out of the few spells of that type he'd prepared that morning - upon the unconscious hengeyokai.The thoqqua continued on its meandering trail, forcing Grigor to rush out from behind the bar and into the small bathroom in the far corner.  He emerged shortly thereafter with the wash basin of water the clientele used to wash their hands after using the facilities, and dumped it over onto the flames burning away at his wooden floor.  "Give me a hand with this!" he called over to a gaggle of nearby patrons, but they were all frozen in fright, seeing their favorite watering hole under attack by a skunk, a mass of centipedes, and now a flaming earthworm seemingly made out of lava.  "Bah!" Grigor scowled, and took off his apron to swat at the remaining flames - the ones farthest from the thoqqua, for even Grigor dared not get too close to the thing.Kruz changed position and managed to hit Braelor again with a well-placed crossbow shot, while Brendan and Adrielle were still trying to burst open the side door - now each of them held a log as an impromptu battering ram and were taking turns slamming them up against the unyielding door.  They finally got it open, although the door was heavily damaged by the attempt.  But there stood the dwarf with the injured foot, Fendall Guzzlegut, wielding a waraxe in his hand and a crazed grin on his face.  He seemed pleased they'd finally opened the door, so real combat could finally begin.Shiroko shook herself awake after being healed by Hoppy, and she looked through the window again.  "Move," she told Kruz, who'd been shooting his crossbow at Braelor enough times that the dwarf tired of that game and was running over to aid Fendall, passing by the sleeping member of their shakedown crew, Churligg Skullcrack.  Then she took a moment to change shape into a snow fox, which was small enough to fit through the open window.  As she landed on the ground outside, she saw the dog guarding the sleeping dwarf, apparently under orders from his mistress to attack him if he woke up - it seemed the elf had heard Shiroko's whispered promise and was doing what she could to surreptitiously aid the heroes against the dwarven trio.  Braelor took another crossbow bolt in the back shoulder as Kruz got off a final shot before he turned the corner to join Fendall, who was now in melee combat with Brendan and Adrielle and apparently holding his own.With Braelor added to the mix, the two heroes at the back door soon found themselves outmatched.  The dwarves, despite minimal armor - leather kilts and sleeveless leather vests - were far tougher and a lot stronger than average, and they wielded their waraxes with dangerous skill.  Behind them, the elf dithered by the sleeping dwarf, wondering if she dared take any action against him.  No, she decided, not while both of the other two were still up and about; if it came down to only one still awake and fighting, she'd be more than happy to help take him down, but with her daughter at risk she didn't dare strike too early, when the tables could still be turned against her.Inside the Alehouse, the thoqqua disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, to the great relief of Grigor, who was still putting out the remaining fires burning up his wooden floor and threatening to spread.Kruz ran through the remaining flames - fortunately, there was a gap where the bar owner had already doused a large patch - around to the kitchen, where he assumed Braelor had been heading.  The rogue placed another bolt into his crossbow as he ran.  He got there just in time to see Adrielle get cut down, falling to the kitchen floor in a pool of blood, a horrible axe-cut across her midsection.  "Hoppy - quick!" he called, firing his weapon at Fendall, as Brendan backed hurriedly away, moving as far back into the kitchen as possible, fumbling with his sling as he did so.  He got a shot off at Braelor, but it didn't seem to faze him much.  Behind the evilly-grinning dwarves, the elf druid approached hesitantly.Kruz rapidly reloaded and fired off another shot at Braelor as Shiroko came running up and bit Fendall in the back of a meaty leg.  The dwarven leader ignored Kruz for the moment and charged Brendan, slamming the back of his waraxe into the monk's head, dropping him instantly.  Fendall cried out to the druid to get over here and heal them up.  "I-- I'm all out of healing spells," the druid lied, as she cast a quick cure minor wounds spell on Adrielle, just enough healing to stop her from losing any more blood but not enough to waken her back up to consciousness and leave the dwarves to wonder just how exactly that had happened.By then, Hoppy had hobbled over, and as Brendan was the closest of the two heroes bleeding out onto the floor, he leaped over the bar to get to him that much quicker, as Kruz was otherwise blocking the way.  He fired off a charge of healing from his wand of cure light wounds, but even that wasn't enough to bring the monk back to full consciousness.Then another combatant entered the fray.  "You hooligans get out of my kitchen!" called Mrs. Muggins, swinging at Braelor with a cast-iron pan.  It missed - the widow-woman was nowhere near an experienced fighter - but Braelor's reaction was as rapid as it was automatic, and he swung his waraxe at her, cutting a red line of blood and pain across her midsection.  She dropped and fell face-first on her newly-scrubbed kitchen floor, staining the boards with her own blood.  Greta screamed from in the corner, where she'd been squatting down in an attempt not to be seen.  She still smelled vaguely of skunk spray, but that was the least of anyone's present concerns.Kruz reloaded and sent another bolt into Braelor's chest, while Shiroko bit the dwarven leader on the back of his leg, just as she'd done to Fendall.  Once again, Braelor reacted with lightning speed, bringing his waraxe about and cutting the snow fox deep across her back.  She collapsed to the floor, unconscious and bleeding out; it had happened too fast for her even to have let out a whimper of pain.But Hoppy whimpered in her place, seeing Adrielle, Mrs. Muggins, and Shiroko now needing his healing skills, all while Brendan was still out after the adept had fired off a second charge of his wand.  At this rate, he was sure he was going to be too late to save them all.  But even though Brendan was still unconscious, the mongrelfolk deemed it unlikely he'd bleed out any more, so he rushed over to the next nearest victim, Mrs. Muggins, who seemed the worst hit of the lot of them.Kruz backed farther away from Braelor but shot him again with another crossbow bolt, and the dwarf leader, having heard the elf's admission that she was all out of healing spells, decided discretion was the better part of valor.  "Let's go!" he called to Fendall, and then, over to the bar owner, he added, "This isn't over, Grigor!  Think long an' hard about it, 'cause we'll be back, ye kin guarantee it!"  Then he and Fendall retreated back out the shattered kitchen door, past the elf, and over by the sleeping Churligg.  "Git over here, elf!" he snarled, and the druid tarried just long enough to cast a cure moderate wounds spell on Adrielle, healing her up and causing her eyelids to flutter awake.  That allowed Hoppy to stumble over to Shiroko in her snow fox form and heal her up with his wand.  She groaned awake and resumed her hybrid form: human-looking, save for the fox ears and the bushy, white tail.Kruz wasn't done with the dwarves yet, though.  He raced over to the open doorway and fired another shot at Braelor as he was bending down to try to slap awake Churligg - and when that wasn't working, to lug him over his shoulder.  Brandon sent a sling stone over his way, now that Hoppy had restored the monk to full consciousness as well.  But then Shiroko called over to the druid, "Your centipedes!  You can retarget them!"A look of fierce determination crossed the elf's face, and she stepped fully into the Alehouse kitchen, to where she could see the swarms of centipedes still writhing about in the same main area; she'd used a creeping doom spell from a scroll, something she couldn't normally cast on her own, and the multilegged arthropods from that spell lasted much longer than the creatures she could normally cast through summon nature's ally spells, like the thoqqua.  "Slay the dwarves!" she called to them, and the centipedes rushed back under the blocked front doors, down the steps and over to where Braelor had just positioned Churligg over his shoulder.  The dog yipped and backed away as a typhoon of writhing creatures spilled over the three dwarves, covering them in numerous layers of legs and multisegmented bodies.  They roared in fury - a bad idea, as that only allowed a few centipedes to enter their open mouths - and the hearty dwarves, despite their renowned toughness, became victims to scores of poisonous bites covering their bodies.  They fell to the ground, thrashing about in an attempt to get the centipedes off of them, but there were far too many and eventually each of the three succumbed to their many wounds.  It was difficult to see among the swarming vermin, but Adrielle thought she'd seen - just for a moment, after the dwarves had stopped moving - thick-bodied slugs crawling out from the back of each thick neck, but if that had really happened, they too were quickly devoured by the ravenous centipedes."Thank you, all," said the elf druid, introducing herself as Iona Shadetree.  She explained that she and her eight-year-old daughter, Kiola, had entered the city to purchase some supplies when they'd been waylaid by the quartet of dwarves.  "The leader, Jorkin Linkforge, is with Kiola now," she said, suppressing a shudder.  "But I know exactly where they're keeping her.""By all means, lead on," said Kruz.Iona led the group across town to the poorer quarter, where Big Edna's Flophouse stood: three rows of tiny, dilapidated rooms and a fourth building that was a simple row of outhouses.  Big Edna was, despite the monicker, a halfling; she claimed she got her nickname because "her heart was so big."  Her flophouse saw fairly frequent business - the fact she was willing to rent out a room by the hour meant she had plenty of customers most nights - and although she didn't charge much, she saved by not bothering to clean the rooms between uses.  Anyone staying at Big Edna's Flophouse knew not to expect too much in the way of amenities; there were outhouses at one end and a manual water pump at the other; anything desired beyond that was up to the clients to come up with.The group had made their plans during the walk across town.  It helped that Kiola was being held in a corner room, so everyone took their designated places and let the plan unfold.  Brendan stood next to the door and, seeing everyone nod their readiness, rapped on the door three times in rapid succession.  That was Hoppy's cue: he called out, mimicking Braelor's voice perfectly, the phrase he'd hear the dwarf use back at the Alehouse: "Let's go!"There was the sound of a chain being undone and then the door opened outward.  Before Jorkin could even process what was happening, he'd been shot in the chest by one of Kruz's crossbow bolts; punched in the sternum by Brendan using a stunning blow that failed to stagger him; slammed in the head by the end of a stretching piece of metal, courtesy of an iron scarf spell cast by Shiroko; and then impaled through the belly with the point of Adrielle's short sword as the scout raced forward to deliver her own justice."Wh--what--?" the dwarven monk gasped, dropping the spiked chain he carried as his primary weapon.  He didn't have enough room inside the cramped flophouse quarters to wield it effectively, but he pulled out a dagger and backed into the room, one hand holding his bleeding stomach and the other pointing the blade at the neck of the little girl chained to the bed frame by a manacle around her ankle.  "Stay back," he warned, "or the girl gets it!"Kruz had another bolt loaded and was aiming it directly at Jorkin, but he pulled the weapon up, the bolt pointing at the sky.  Adrielle and Brendan both backed off, but Iona wasn't having any of it: she cast a summon nature's ally spell and caused an ape to appear on the bed beside her white-faced daughter.  "Protect her!" she called to the ape, who took up a defensive posture over the prone elf child.But Shiroko could tell Jorkin was barely standing upright.  As his dagger wavered, she sent a blast from her wand of magic missiles and dropped him where he stood.  Iona ran immediately to her daughter, who cried in her mother's arms.Jorkin turned out to be wearing a key around his neck that released Kiola's ankle from the manacle at the end of the chain keeping her imprisoned.  After Kruz saw to the killing blow - and no powerslug came phasing out from the back of Jorkin's neck, as the dwarven monk knew full well the dangers of such an infestation - they left the dead monk there for the next paying customer unfortunate enough to be assigned that particular room.  Kruz scooped up a backpack leaning in the corner, which contained the dwarves' combined coinage and, oddly, a half dozen holy symbols of Aerik, God of Protection.  They learned from Iona the dwarves had been shaking down local businesses for protection money, guaranteeing the safety of the building as long as they displayed Aerik's symbol.Iona took a moment to duck into the next room over - where she'd been held against her will - returning with her own pack of supplies.  From that she passed over a half dozen potions and oils, gladly paying the heroes what she could for the rescue of herself and her daughter from the greedy dwarves.  She also gave them a bird feather token.  "It's scant reward for all that you have done," she said."Not to worry," replied Brendan, who'd snatched up the dead monk's spiked chain and given it a few tentative swings outside in the open air.  "Glad to be of service."  And glad to get my hands on one of these weapons, he thought to himself, for the monk had long wished to learn to try out a spiked chain.  Learning to masterfully wield such an exotic weapon would take a lot of work, but he was willing to give it a twirl - so to speak. - - -I was afraid the players would go through this adventure fairly quickly, so I had the one that followed all prepped and ready if needed.  But this adventure lasted a little over three hours, making for a somewhat short session but long enough that adding on a second adventure would likely go on for too long.Jorkin's weapon was a +1 ki focus spiked chain, added into the adventure specifically because Dan originally wanted the spiked chain to be Brendan's primary weapon, but not having the requisite Base Attack Bonus at character creation to be able to start off with the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, which he plans to pick up at 3rd level.  Since the PCs will hit 3rd level at the end of the next two adventures, I figured it was time to start seeding in some of the weapons they'll (hopefully) carry through the end of the campaign. - - -T-shirt worn: My "Duck Dynasty" T-shirt, featuring the bearded faces of Jase, Uncle Si, Willie, and Phil Robertson - a decent representation of the four bearded dwarves the PCs ended up fighting against in this adventure.</blockquote>

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